IMPRINTS Oct—Nov 2014

1 Alumni Committee

IMPRINTS Oct—Nov 2014

2 Alumni Committee

Foreword Dear SIMSR’ites,

Season’s Greetings from the Alumni Relations Office!

As we bring this year to a close, we have some very special memories.

Safarnama – Road back to ’77, the theme of our annual Alumni event,

Nostalgia, brought back to campus over 500 alumni who spent a good even-

ing meeting up with old class mates, seniors and juniors. Two of the batches,

2001 and 2004 were felicitated and they shared their fondest memories of

the time spent on campus.

Confluence 2014 saw us proudly hosting our alumni who are now experts in their area of operation.

The topic this year was Primal Leadership – the Hidden driver. We explored the connection between Emo-

tional intelligence and leadership skills. A never fading topic of discussion, it gave the students insights into

what they may expect as they grow in their respective careers.

The second annual SIMSR Global Supply Chain management Conference was an informative session

bringing together multiple facets of Supply Chain. The agenda included a panel discussion followed by a

paper presentation and a Round Table Conference. Please read ahead for more details.

IBS@SIMSR celebrated its 5th Year and the highlight was the address by Prof. Paul Marer from the Central

European University, Budapest, Hungary. Prof. Marer conducted courses in IB for a duration of 6-8 weeks

for our PG students.

The CII-Western Region had organized their 13th Manufacturing Summit on “Make in India” - the

buzzword at this time. Our students greatly benefitted from this experience of knowledge and learning.

CII also organized the first ever Tower Run at WTC, Cuffe parade in order to spread the message of health

awareness amongst Corporates. The next event is due to be held on 25th November, 2015.. Do block your

calendars and participate.

The Self-defense workshop organized by the WDC on campus on Taekwondo was very well received

with active participation from both students and staff.

Our students had their fun time with the Navrathri celebrations and enjoyed and danced their studies

away! All this and much more in this edition of Imprints!

As always we look forward to publish Alumni achievements/ contributions and articles. We also ap-

preciate your feedback and suggestions. Do write into us at alcom.simsr@somaiya.edu

Happy reading,

Vidhya Sharma

Alumni Relations Manager

IMPRINTS Oct—Nov 2014

3 Alumni Committee

IMPRINTS Oct—Nov 2014

4 Alumni Committee

Nostalgia, the annual alumni homecoming event is one

of the most anticipated and magnificently celebrated

occasions in SIMSR. This year it was no exception and

needless to say that Nostalgia’14 was a tremendous suc-

cess. The theme for this year was Safarnama – Road

back to 77. Preparations had started well in advance to-

wards the end of which the entire college premise was

embellished with lamps, posters, banners, pit stops

showcasing glimpses of a student’s journey to SIMSR and

beyond. Every committee had put up a stall in the am-

phitheater and Chanakya Building lobby.

It was since noon, that the alumni had started ar-

riving in clusters and Alumni Committee members had

begun registering them diligently. The event was inaugu-

rated by Professor Dr. Satish Ailawadi, Director along

with Prof C.P. Joshi, Dr. Radha Iyer and Ms. Rupali

Guptare. With the Convocation ceremony happening on

the same day, the entire campus looked like a grand fair

ground with joyful faces hovering around. After the ini-

tial welcome, the Sports Committee took charge of all

the sport enthusiast alumni and escorted them to the

sports ground. They tried their hands at badminton,

squash and basketball. Then The AGM

(Annual General Meeting) was conducted in

which we had 18 esteemed alumni from all

walks of life. With them, we shared in detail

our progress and achievements for the year,

the challenges we face and also the mile-

stones we have set for ourselves as the K J

Somaiya Alumni Committee. The meeting pro-

vided us with vital insights that would prove

valuable in pursuing our vision and mission.

The next in the event list was Parichay, the

networking event. This is a new initiative

kicked off from this year, where forty-five alumni from

different batches interacted with each other and the

faculty. The multilateral dialogue brought new perspec-

tive on current job requirements as well as global market

scenario.

By late evening, there were around 500 alumni who had

paid visit to the campus at the call of their alma mater.

Furthermore, batches of 2001 and 2004 were felicitated

by Dr. Radha Iyer. The former students were more than

glad to come on stage and share memories of their life at

SIMSR. They were given gifts as a token of admiration

and good luck for future. To top that there were

spellbinding performances by NSPA and SIMSR’s own

band MAUJ. The serene classical and fusion music

mesmerized everyone. After that, the DJ took over the

stage and all the students and alumni shook a leg in the

open theatre. It was a sight to behold. The ceremony

ended at 11pm in a grand banquet dinner organized for

our Alumni. We gave gifts and collected feedback from

them. They were very happy to be back to their own

college and bade us a touching goodbye with a promise

to come back again along the road of 77.

Nostalgia 2014

IMPRINTS Oct—Nov 2014

5 Alumni Committee

IMPRINTS Oct—Nov 2014

6 Alumni Committee

Confluence 2014 was enlightening as it always is!

This year we had a vibrant panel not only in terms

of quality but diversity as well. The panel consisted

of alumni from Morgan Stanley, Talwalkars, L’Oreal,

Kidzania and Channel V. The topic for discussion

was the HBR article on Primal Leadership which fo-

cused on the role of emotional intelligence in deci-

sion making. Our prestigious alumnus Ms. Avril Mi-

randa from Morgan Stanley moderated the

discussion very meticulously. Every panelist gave

their invaluable insight into the topic by sharing an-

ecdotes from their rich and varied experiences in

the corporate world.

The event started with Sir Isaac Jacob

welcoming alumni for this one of its kind homecom-

ing event. We began with Mr. Nisheeth Neelkanth,

Group head Fiction, Channel V who spoke about

how the creative workforce in media industry is

generally emotionally inclined calling for precise

mentoring becomes to tap out-of- the- box ideas.

He concluded on the note that in the business world

more than often professional lifestyle overshadows

personal life if left unchecked. It is not easy for an

individual to seclude emotions experienced in work-

place and home while trying to balance the two.

Mrs Sona Mazumdar, National Head Strategic

Partnerships, Kidzania shared her own professional

journey and emphasized how she has adapted over

time and shifted roles from the ones that required

her emotions to be nurtured to the ones where she

is expected to nurture the emotions of her col-

leagues and subordinates in the workplace. It was

followed by some honest opinions, suggestions and

experiences of Mr Sandeep Kriplani, Director Active

Cosmetics Division, L’Oreal. He stressed on the im-

portance of Emotional Intelligence and recommend-

ed the audience to read Daniel Golman’s book on

Emotional Intelligence for gaining in depth

knowledge on the subject. Also, he shared how stu-

dents from IIM undergo EI assessment tests.

Last but not the least, Mr Vishal Rupani, CEO,

Talwalkar HIFI, shared with the audience a

remarkable situation that he encountered in his

work where in the right application of EI skills

yielded excellent results and immense profits to the

organization. It was all the more fascinating to hear

that back in his college days Mr. Rupani had

initiated the college PR magazine ‘Horizon’.

In the end the panelists interacted with the

audience and took their queries and doubts. A vote

of thanks was given by Prof. Radha Iyer. SIMSRites

were happy to be a part of the event that equipped

them with better understanding of the requisite

leadership qualities in business.

Confluence 2014

IMPRINTS Oct—Nov 2014

7 Alumni Committee

The second annual SIMSR Global Supply Chain Man-

agement Conference was held on 5th December

2014. It was an informative session discussing multi-

ple aspects of systematic and strategic coordination

management for supplying products and services

required by the end customer. The key objective of

the conference covered the benefits of SCM in

creating supply chain surplus, building a competitive

infrastructure, synchronizing the goods supply and

leveraging worldwide logistics. In current day econ-

omy, where persistently evolving global companies

are forced to keep looking for production center

with least cost of labor and raw material to com-

pete in the global market, SCM plays a strategic and

operational backbone for the organization.

The event was inaugurated by Prof. Issac

Jacob followed by welcoming of the keynote

speaker Dr. Apurva Jain, PHD from Purdue Universi-

ty and a professor of Operations Management at

Fosters School of Business by Prof. J S Lamba and

Dr. Pramod Shetty.

The session was followed by a Panel discus-

sion on Disruptive Supply Chain Management by the

guest of honor Dr. Dirk Hartel (Head of Department

of Supply Chain in DHBW University Stuttgart, Ger-

many), Mr. Arun Rao (Head Solutions Design & Op-

erations - Contract Logistics & Supply Chain

Services, All Cargo Logistics), Dr. Naag and Prof.

Lamba.

The Panelists discussed that successful break-

throughs change the firms and often its markets for-

ever. The feasibility and implementation of such

technological marvels are driven by smarter techno-

logical wonders in the backend processes such as

internal operations, supply chain and logistics, rela-

tionships with suppliers, partners and associates be

it in terms of usage of Drones, Big data, RFID etc.

The panel discussion was followed by the paper

presentation in which we had prominent industrial

speakers who spoke on various aspects and ways of

reducing risks in the supply chain.

The post lunch session was an interesting

Round Table conference on ‘De-risking the Supply

chain in global environment). The panel consisted of

eminent industry experts such as: Mr. Deepak

Jakate, Mr. Surendra Deodhar, Mr. Chitur Devraj,

Mr. Rajesh Padnekar & Prof. Lamba. The panelists

discussed that Risks can come from uncertainty in

financial markets, threats from project failures, legal

liabilities, credit risk, accidents, natural causes and

disasters as well as deliberate attack from an adver-

sary, or unpredictable events. They very aptly ex-

plained that how the risk of supply chain disruption

has become more prevalent owing to the globalized

nature of the supply chain, just-in-time inventory

management, consolidation of vendors through

strategic sourcing activities, and overall geo-political

changes, amongst other areas.

Prof. Rahul Mulay delivered the vote of

thanks.

SIMSR Global Supply Chain Management Conference

“The systemic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across

these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the

supply chain“

IMPRINTS OCT-nov 2014

8 Alumni Committee

18th November, 2014 marked the successful com-

pletion of five years of contribution by International

Business Society (IBS@SIMSR) to complement the

classroom learning of SIMSR students in Interna-

tional Business. The highlight of this event was the

keynote address by Professor Dr. Paul Marer of Cen-

tral European University, Budapest, Hungary. The

event was also graced by Mrs. Paul Marer.

Professor C P Joshi, fac-

ulty mentor (IBS@SIMSR)

along with the student mem-

bers of IBS@SIMSR

welcomed Mrs. And Mr.

Marer to the event. The

event was also witnessed by

some of the faculty members

of SIMSR.

It began with the recital of the Campus prayer,

followed by a welcome address by Professor C.P.

Joshi. Professor Joshi briefly covered the highlights

of the annual events organized by IBS@SIMSR like

the International Business Conference (Pangea), the

Inter B-School competition on Country Strategies

(Commercio) and the International Business Day at

Samavesh. Professor Joshi also outlined the

achievements of e-GlobuzZ, the quarterly e-

publication of IBS@SIMSR which was launched on

18th November 2009.

Professor Marer started his keynote address

by introducing himself and gave a backdrop of his

experiences during his rich academic and profes-

sional international career. He began the presenta-

tion with his views on the Global Economic Trends.

He told that, historically the GDP of India and China

has been about two thirds of the world GDP and

elaborated on how China and India would have a

modest 5% GDP growth till 2050. He showed a cor-

relation between the form of Government and eco-

nomic growth. He then dwelt on the European Un-

ion and the rules governing it. He elaborated on the

social and economic challeng-

es of Northern and Southern

European countries and em-

phasized upon how the disin-

tegration of the Euro zone

could be more disastrous than

collapse of Euro as a currency.

In the concluding part of

his address, Professor Marer also spoke about the

socio-economic status of some East European coun-

tries like Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Hun-

gary. The address was followed by a detailed ques-

tion and answer round with the audience. Some of

the queries dealing with the Ukrainian crisis, dollar

as a reserve currency, election process of the EU

and green governance were well answered by Pro-

fessor Marer. The first-hand knowledge shared by

Professor Marer and his insights on Global Trends,

the EU and the East European countries were inval-

uable for the audience of SIMSR students.

The event concluded with a vote of thanks by

our Faculty Mentor Professor C P Joshi and cake-

cutting by Mrs. And Mr. Marer to mark the 5th anni-

versary of IBS@SIMSR.

5th Anniversary of IBS@SIMSR

IMPRINTS Oct—Nov 2014

9 Alumni Committee

As it is said, one of the best ways to learn is through

peer learning, what could be a better opportunity

for students than to learn from experiences of your

own alumni. So, we – the team Imprints on this

occasion would like to thank Mr. Siddhartha

Khemka, VP, Centrum Wealth Management Ltd for

addressing the PG Executive, 2014-15 batch at the

institute and sharing his invaluable experience in

equity research. The students were delighted to

have such a warm welcome and few key takeaways

were,

“His session provided clarity on how equity invest-

ment is as good as or better than any other invest-

ment in real estate.

“Clearly explained concepts on how equity research

is done and its impact on investments and discussed

the career path in equity research”

“Got substantial information about stock exchange,

their formation & operational systems and learnt

A Special Note of Thanks

IMPRINTS OCT-nov 2014

10 Alumni Committee

The CII-WR (Western Region) organized its 13th

Manufacturing Summit on 14th November, 2014 at

the Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai. The agenda of the

summit was “Making “Make in India” a Reality”.

The summit focused on the fundamental changes

required to transform India into a manufacturing

hub. As the Imprints team spoke to the CII YI repre-

sentatives from SIMSR, here is what they had to say,

“It was a great learning experience where our

students got an insight of how going digital and

using big data will help the Indian manufacturing

sector to prosper in the future. “

At the event, Mr Sumit Sarawgi, Partner &

Managing Director,India Leadership Team-BCG India

was the main speaker. All the eminent guests who

addressed the audience focused on the necessity to

address the talent shortage despite the overall

surplus of labor in the country. They highlighted

that SMEs are the backbone of India's

manufacturing sector, and ensuring the success of

Indian SMEs is a critical step towards achieving the

goal of global leadership. They expressed their con-

cern regarding the increasing degree of challenges

being faced by SMEs nowadays and suggested few

steps needed to address these obstacles. Also, this

event gave our students an opportunity to interact

with various entrepreneurs and helped them to un-

derstand the importance of the manufacturing sec-

tor in the priority list for India to be a globally

successful nation.

CII Manufacturing Summit on

―Making Make in India a Reality‖

IMPRINTS OCT-nov 2014

Alumni Committee

ALUMNI COMMITTEE

WISHES EVERYONE..

IMPRINTS Oct—Nov 2014

12 Alumni Committee

Mumbai experienced its first Tower Run on 23rd

November at WTC, Cuff Parade organised by CII.

With an intention to create health awareness

among the corporate and to bring the rapidly ex-

panding sport to Mumbai, CII succeeded in waking

up Mumbai on a Sunday early morning.

Recognized and promoted by

World Tower Running Association (TWA), based in

Austria, and supported by Municipal Corporation of

Greater Mumbai (MCGM), Tower Run had two

events:

- An individual event

- A relay of four members

As Mumbai was going to witness this grand mara-

thon, CII YI—SIMSR was entrusted with the respon-

sibility of creating awareness about the event in a

week .The task was challenging but they accepted it

with full enthusiasm. CII YI -SIMSR offline promotion

team visited major colleges of Mumbai to popular-

ize this event few among which include NITIE, TISS,

RUIA and Welingkar. The students in these colleges

tasted the importance of healthy living when they

had to win short races during the promotion, to get

free passes to the event. Also, CII YI SIMSR online

promotion team tweeted about these free passes to

create buzz among the students of different institu-

tions of Mumbai. The “DO YOU KNOW” facts on Fa-

cebook and tweeter, and the preparation selfie con-

test on Facebook called attention for this initiative.

The entire CII YI-SIMSR support team had a pre

event training on Saturday, 22nd Nov 2014 about the

activities and the flow of the event. On the final day,

the support team provided assistance to the partici-

pants throughout, from registrations till refresh-

ments. The event saw diversity in the participants

ranging from corporate and school children to gym

professionals and elder citizens. SIMSR’s All Wom-

en team left their mark by achieving top position in

the women’s team event of the Run.

The CII YI-SIMSR team that helped make this event

successful had their bags filled with lots of learning

and experiences. The team gained hands on experi-

ence in event promotion both digital and personal

marketing as well as event handling.

This very first initiative was such a huge success that

it promises to exhaust us again on 29th Nov 2015.

CII Tower Run—Mumbai 2014

IMPRINTS Oct—Nov 2014

13 Alumni Committee

With this as their core

belief at heart, the

Women’s Develop-

ment Cell (WDC) of

SIMSR, works towards

empowering students

such that they carry

forward the motivation

to promote an environ-

ment of gender amity and sensitivity. To achieve its

objectives, WDC organizes events, workshops and

programs on gender amity, women’s welfare and

continuously try to recognize individual efforts to-

wards equality and empowerment.

One of the initiatives of WDC, on these lines,

was the second edition of Self-Defense Workshop

held on 28th November, 2014.It was a one day work-

shop focusing on the world famous martial art form

of Taekwondo. Taekwondo is one of the only two

Asian martial arts that are included in Olympic

Games. This martial art form was originally prac-

ticed by Korean martial artists who were studying in

China during Japanese occupation of Korea. Post the

end of Japanese occupation, martial art schools

known as Kwans made Taekwondo popular within

the country and internationally as well.

The workshop was conducted by Grand mas-

ter, Jeong Hee Lee, 7th Dan Black Belt from Kukki-

won- World Taekwondo Headquarters and the

coach of the Indian Youth Taekwondo team. He was

accompanied by Master Hardik Unadket, 2nd Dan

Black Belt from Kukkiwon. The workshop was a

grand success witnessing a participation of more

than hundred participants including both students

and faculty. The key takeaways from the workshop

were learning the nitty-gritties of Taekwondo, basic

Taekwondo techniques and self-defense moves and

lastly the Do’s and Don’ts in case of an attack.

“The workshop was very beneficial. We learnt some

great moves for defending against common holds

like front choke and back choke. It was a wonderful

experience”, said Shruti Gupta, one of the partici-

pants. “Such self-defense workshops should be held

regularly in schools and colleges to boost the confi-

dence of students and martial arts must be made a

part of physical education”, said a faculty

participant.

Not just another self-defense workshop!!

‘The thing a woman has learnt is that anybody gives you power.

You just take it.’- Roseanne Barr

IMPRINTS OCT-nov 2014

14 Alumni Committee

On Oct 7th , SIMSRites celebrated the unforgettable

Dandiya Night organised by the Student Activity Fo-

rum. The bright chaniya cholis and kedias created

the perfect aura for the evening. Boogieing to the

music was fun, not only for those who participated

but also was a visual treat for those who preferred

to watch from the side-lines.

The evening started with Aarthi and Prasad fol-

lowed by the famous moves of garba. Prizes and gift

coupons were distributed to the Best dressed Male/

Female and Best dancer Male/Female. The event

brought an end to all Navaratri celebrations at

SIMSR on a fun filled note.

Dandiya Raas – A night of dance and music

IMPRINTS OCT-nov 2014

15 Alumni Committee

Imprints Team Editors

Srabana Chaudhari

M — 9769076920

Divya Kaul

M — 9876331089

Content Manager And Designer

Designers

Gulshan Deepchandani

M — 9860699431

Junior Team

Tanvi Bhutani

M — 9833905774

Aayush Chadha

M — 9665759865

Ridhi Gupta Swinston Dalmeida

Contributors Anshumala Sinha Lovina Murdia

Priyal Doshi Rishikesh Dabholkar

Ayona Chowdhury Rohan Pai

IMPRINTS Oct—Nov 2014

16 Alumni Committee